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Paddy Mulligan: Mourinho "knew Mata was a drifter"

This weekend's Premier League featured a number of players who could not prevent themselves from ...



Paddy Mulligan: Mourinho "...
Soccer

Paddy Mulligan: Mourinho "knew Mata was a drifter"

This weekend's Premier League featured a number of players who could not prevent themselves from getting silly second yellow cards when they were already skating on thin ice with the referees.

Arsenal's Francis Coquelin and Liverpool's James Milner saw red in their matches against Tottenham and Crystal Palace respectively, while Spurs' Eric Dier should have seen a second yellow in the North London derby draw with the Gunners.

Manchester United's Juan Mata was another to pick up a very avoidable second yellow card in the first half of their 1-0 defeat at West Brom.

While the playmaker's actions were not too clever, ex-Chelsea and Ireland full-back Paddy Mulligan does not think the Spain international is all he is cracked up to be.

"Mata's was unforgivable. He performed a real act of stupidity yesterday," said Paddy of the dismissal on the Rewind podcast.

"I've never liked Mata as a player. I think he goes missing for too long in midfield when he should be the orchestrator. He's very much on the fringes. He drifts wide to the right and drifts off wide to the left. That to me is hiding."

Mata's former Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho was known not to be a huge fan of the player and Paddy reckons the man who could yet take the United job according to some rumours, "knew he was a drifter and he wasn't going to take you out of the mire in a big game".

"And if you check back the records, he hasn't done that at United either," Paddy added.

Paddy also reviewed the big games in the Premier League, including the North London derby, Leicester running away with it and penalty controversy as Liverpool ended a barren spell at Crystal Palace. Plus there is a look ahead to Chelsea v PSG and the Europa League encounter between Liverpool and Manchester United. Listen in on the podcast player:

 

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